Archiva
by barefootbean
Summary: A collection of one-hundred word drabbles. Various characters/pairings. Written for Tales 100 themes on DW. Spoilers.
1. Raven x Rita, Theme: Candlelight

_**Pulse**_

Raven didn't mind her eccentricity most days. It was familiar; wholesome; welcomed.

Lamp turned on in the dark, she worked, as if it wasn't evening and the curtains weren't drawn on his side of the room. As if his heart wasn't being offered up like a gift to a divinity he didn't recognize.

Shifting his head to the side to glance accusingly at the clock, a single arm stretched out to reach, there came a gentle tap around his blastia, and he hesitated.

"Only a few more minutes," Rita murmured, and he listened to a pulse not his own.


	2. Khroma & Duke, Theme: Candlelight

_**Fragile**_

By candlelight, everything seemed a little different about him.

There were no sharp edges, only blurred lines, and a constant feeling of her stomach twisting in on itself like a mass. There were no comparisons, no dwindling tones or fanciful claims to dance around between them tonight.

Albeit courageous for a broken man... that did not erase his fragility.

"Duke... I'm warning you... do not go through with this."

All was silent.

"Stop... Think of Elucifer. ...Would he agree?"

The candle dimmed, and Khroma caught a glimpse of a sword.

"...It was never his decision to make."


	3. Estelle x Yuri, Theme: Candlelight

_**Glow**_

Cast in periwinkle and golden hues, Estelle wondered, glancing around as shelves towered and bookcases conquered, where she should start in a place with no beginning.

Standing guard, or lingering out of honest interest, Yuri plucked a random book from the shelf before him, and began to flip through it idly, pages crisp yet weak against his calloused palms.

"Yuri. What... is that you're reading?" He glanced up, lips twitching in bemusement.

"An adventure novel," he answered smoothly, and she read the title:

_Brave Vesperia._

"...Written by my favorite author," he added, and Estelle's face glowed.


	4. Estelle & Undine, Theme: Candlelight

_**Luminescence**_

It was a lot like drowning—but without the spluttering.

No, correction... it was _very much_ like drowning—except there was air—and sky—_and_ feeling, welcome and unbidden in the dazzling, icy landscape.

Strangely, while she felt the cold pricks of ice moving up her arms, making her spine tingle, and slipping down around her body and circulating... There was another feeling, more noticeable, and thriving in her fingertips.

When the pain gave way to warmth, and it felt as though the sun's light had been instilled in her chest... Estelle opened her eyes, and a spirit with a familiar shine greeted her.


	5. Raven x Rita, Theme: Candlelight 2

_**Votive**_

Rita didn't know what to expect. Between the food, the people, and his knee touching hers, it _really_ shouldn't have felt so disconcerting.

Wringing the fabric of her dress in shaky hands, Rita stared at the tabletop, the small candle lit there, and the dark, lightly illuminated walls that made up their small private booth. If Raven hadn't been sitting next to her, and hadn't lightly given her knee a squeeze when people started _looking_ at them, she was sure she would've snapped.

"Easy, darlin'..." he murmured, and Rita watched the votive's flame, wishing she were anywhere but there.


	6. Damuron x Canary, Theme: Candlelight

_**Promise**_

Damuron didn't cherish his luck.

If there was a difference between dying, and then real, permanent death, he wouldn't have known, because it had happened all too quickly—and when he was finally able to stare past the irritating blur swarming his eyes, past the radiance that _had_ to be her–

Canary was already gone.

When he woke, he assumed himself to be dead, too.

_I won't abandon you_, he had told her, but now, bathed in a lantern's glow, and feeling an uncomfortably heavy weight embedded in his chest—it was the one promise between them he hadn't been able to keep.


	7. Karol x Nan, Theme: Candlelight

_**Smooth**_

He had never been good at expressing himself. For Nan's sake, he only hoped the words came out right.

Legs twitching, Karol gnawed on the end of an eraser, eyebrows low as he considered what could be deemed appropriate. Anything confessional or along the lines of _I love you_ would simply end with him in the hospital; anything that said _No, really, I do,_ would end with him in a coma.

Karol shook his head and glared in frustration at his lantern. He had to be smooth about it. Like... _Raven_.

Karol sighed.

No... Nan would _definitely_ kill him then.


	8. Sodia, Theme: From A Great Height

_**Smile**_

It was supposed to ease the burden. But unfortunately, emotions didn't work that way.

Sodia found it ironic, because here she was, dirtying her own hands over a vile man who'd soiled his _own_ hands thrice as much as herself. Ragou, Cumore, Alexei...

Didn't he honestly deserve what she gave him, though? The pain she was trying so desperately hard to reflect back upon him?

_Well, no, he didn't–_

But... didn't that make her just as guilty as he?

But the Commandant—didn't Flynn... deserve to be happy?

All she had wanted was for him to smile like he used to.


	9. Duke, Theme: From A Great Height

_**Birds**_

Humans were truly of an unruly race.

He'd warned them. He'd tried to dissuade them. But they were persistent. And foolish. And in their foolishness, they'd tried to become birds; they believed they could fly, thought that their wings would simply sprout.

And so when the carcasses heaped up in piles, lances fluttered about like stones, and the monsters cowed, tearing Mt. Temza to pieces and carving the bleak future he'd predicted, Duke watched from his own pair of wings, and tried not to feel even as his eyes searched.

Only a single pair of 'birds' ever caught his eye.


	10. Raven & Judith, Thm: From A Great Height

_**Ends**_

He'd have hoped they listened, because he wasn't keen on speaking twice.

The air was warm, yet somehow, his hands still felt prickly. Raven stuffed them in his pockets for lack of a better thing to do, and observed the dirt at his feet, the crunch of powder as it was carried away with the breeze.

Judith glanced at him. "This is where Casey died, isn't it?"

Slowly, he smiled absently. "Nah, not here. This is where the war was fought, yeah, but..."

"...But not where it ended."

"Judith darlin', it never truly ended, did it?"


	11. Raven x Rita, Theme: From A Great Height

_**Falling**_

Rita hadn't realized just much she'd fallen.

"_Five years,_" he murmured, fiddling with her hand in his. The dry skin, the heart lines, the small, delicate ring. He twisted it, almost thoughtfully, as if it could speak. "_Who'd have thought?_" he proposed again, and Rita was voiceless.

What could change in five years, she asked herself? What did that question even _mean?_

"...What do ya think? Figure we'll survive another five?"

She tapped his knee softly. "Stupid... Can you even _last_ that long?" and Raven's smile remained infinitely considerate, forever scandalous.

"_Hon', you tell me..._"


	12. Yeager, Theme: From A Great Height

_**Pocket-watch**_

Yeager prided himself on his ability to always be on time.

He didn't like tardies, lateness, or even its vile distant neighbor—shortcomings. It was so much easier, he found, to simply carry a pocket-watch, so when Alexei made his moves and Zaude came forth like the divine solution his Commandant saw it as, Yeager had time to say his farewells in style.

"My beloved daughters...Ve'll have the last laugh, darlings—_Vorry not!_" he sang, and struck a pose that would have left Casey laughing aloud for hours.

Smiling then, he didn't check his pocket-watch, even so much as once.


	13. Flynn & Judith, Thm: From A Great Height

_**Brute**_

Flynn didn't know much about the Kritya. He didn't know much about their origin. He didn't know much of their interests. And he knew even less of their behaviors.

_Kritya are an ancient race,_ Estelle had said. _They invented the blastia, and are whom to we owe our knowledge on technology today._

So it was certain – she hadn't said, but he'd assumed – that as an ancient race of wise and inventive people, they should be treated with respect.

The first time he met Judith at peacetime, she smiled and cracked her knuckles like a brute.

"Hello, Commandant."


	14. Estelle & Ioder, Th: From A Great Height

_**One of a Kind**_

"Lady Estellise... you are _truly_ one of a kind. I am proud to call you cousin."

Amidst the sparkling cider, cheers, and shouts of _congrats, the Adephagos is gone!_, Ioder remained relaxed and content.

It was odd, thinking of the young girl Estellise had once been, and then seeing her as the strong-willed princess that she had become. She had never been weak to begin with—but now, standing with her friends and smiling as if Alexei's treatment of her had all been a bad dream, she shined with a vitality he'd only ever heard her talk about in books.


	15. Judith, Theme: Bare Skin

_**Clean Feel**_

The cold never bothered her.

There was something comforting about feeling cool air against the skin that one simply couldn't fathom under bundles and layers of clothes. It was a clean feeling, a sensation that left her thinking of places she hadn't been to before—lands and past civilizations she still had yet to discover.

Whenever Zopheir's winds bit at her flesh, or the gentle breezes of Nordopolica tugged at her cheeks, it was never an irritating sentiment; it was calming. Feeling the chill, yet not feeling her skin simultaneously...

There was something casual about enjoying nature's gentle graces, Judith decided.


	16. Raven & Rita, Theme: Bare Skin

_**Call Him What They May**_

It was ironic, she found, that for being such a ladies man, Raven really hardly knew anything at all.

Rita hadn't planned for the temperature to skyrocket. She hadn't planned to bring a change of clothes. And she most certainly _hadn't_ planned for Judith to be a supplier of aforementioned clothing. Of course, Rita had no intention of sweating to death—but the moment she stepped out of the girls' lavatory only to run smack into _him_, she knew it had been a mistake.

"...Oh hon... the hell are yer_ clothes?_"

"S-shut up! I'm _hot_, _okay?_"

Raven laughed.


	17. Estelle & Yuri, Theme: Joke

_**Joker**_

"It was a joke," Yuri said, but Estelle didn't get it.

Uncomfortable at his words, she weaved her white gloved hands together and asked herself why no one had ever taught her what it was like to talk to lower-class men, why no one had thought to teach her that being able to chat sociably amongst her citizens and recognize their sly remarks was important.

Because certainly, the time she spent pondering Yuri and Raven's erotic conversations everyday could have been to put to better use.

When Yuri cocked an eyebrow, and realization dawned, all she felt was embarrassment.


	18. Raven & Rita, Theme: Luck

_**It**_

"You see Rita darlin', gamblin's a game of chance. Either ya got it—or ya don't."

Shuffling the deck of cards in front of them with the skill of an old time player, Raven cut the deck in half. Calloused fingers casually dealt a hand to them both, and picking hers up nonchalantly, Rita wondered just how many times he'd done this before.

"So... do I have it?" she asked then, and Raven slowed.

He analyzed her face carefully. Slowly, a cheeky grin began to grow, and he looked back down at his hands.

"Yeah... you got it."


	19. Yuri & Flynn, Theme: Bad Decisions

_**Detours**_

It had been a stupid idea from the start thinking Yuri would listen to him—but sitting on the edge of the bed, dinner in his lap, Repede at his feet—the atmosphere was perfect.

Almost too perfect, but Flynn knew opportunities when he saw them. Back and forth went the rag over the blade in Yuri's hand, and Flynn snuck a bite of soup, steeling himself for the final confrontation.

"...You know, you never mentioned this before." And then, Yuri, quietly, "...are you really sure?"

Flynn hesitated, watching his broth-y reflection. "No... but soon—yes."

Yuri was silent.


	20. Karol & Judith, Theme: Taking Shelter

_**Where There Is Wonder...**_

They had an unfair disadvantage from the start, and Judith knew it, too.

There was flour in their hair, on their clothes, and most of it on the floor rather than in the bowl, but Judith didn't look concerned. She examined the mess with a frown, laid the spoon aside and carefully reached over to tug the sugar out of Estelle's arms. In mortification, Estelle was silent.

Yuri and Raven glanced at each other, Rita glowered, and Judith smiled a rare smile at Karol.

"It's alright. We'll fix it," she murmured.

Estelle turned white with powder—and Karol grinned.


End file.
